amanda palmer's open poem to jonathan chait (and other crimes)

sorry

this is my favorite thread atm

well maybe not the past 2 gifs

we could put a ron swanson mustache on amanda palmer if you like...

albini:
On the part of the fans, I totally understand and sympathize with this impulse [to play for their favorite musician for free]. That's starkly different from a millionaire asking people to do things for free, under the guise that she is giving them something by indulging them. It's cheapness repainted as generosity and it's gross. Using people in this way, exploiting their good nature for one’s own benefit, is a cancer that taints many enterprises and it always reflects poorly on the exploiter. It's one of the things I hated most about the old-school record business, the practice of fucking with people who loved music so much they would put up with endless greed and abuse just to be a part of it. A new music business paradigm, if it is worth anything, should strive to be free of exploitation and be honest about its motives....
Nobody's an idiot, some ways of conducting business are just uglier and more exploitative than others.

this is the part that made me ride

I value self-sufficiency and its implied efficiency and economy very highly. This personality trait has enabled my bands to turn a profit on literally every tour we’ve ever undertaken, from the first road trip to Minneapolis in 1982 to the tour of Australia we’ll be starting a couple of weeks from now. It has also kept my business afloat while most other studios are failing, despite the relatively low rates we charge. It’s a sound and productive way to see the world, it has served me well and I don’t apologize for it. It’s also not unique to me. There is a whole culture of people who do things independently and efficiently, and it isn’t an accident that they have been at the vanguard of culture for decades.

haha, rmde not ride

http://mikeking.berkleemusicblogs.com/2009/06/23/how-an-indie-musician-can-make-19000-in-10-hours-using-twitter/

Was this to benefit a cause besides herself?

i had already seen the power of twitter while touring…using twitter i’d gathered crowds of sometimes 200 fans with a DAY’S notice to come out and meet me in public spaces (parks, mostly) where i would play ukulele, sign, hug, take pictures, eat cake, and generally hang out and connect. this was especially helpful in the cities where we’d been unable to book all-ages gigs and there were crushed teenagers who were really grateful to have a shot at connecting with me & the community of amanda/dolls fans.

I know typo lols are cheap and all but I really love the idea of her gathering flashmobs to fingerspell at

at the suggestion of a fan early in the webcastm anyone could, on demand, send us $20 via paypal and we would chew,
sign and mail them a postcard. we sold about 70, and we read all those names at the end of the webcast and thanked those
people for supporting us.

waht

Sign a simple song! Try a little A,B,C,D!

I wonder if the fans had to bring the cake. xxp

I imagine she meant 'sign autographs', DJP.

chew, sign and mail them a postcard.

http://esldivlabs.vcc.ca/ELSA/Instructor_Web_Exercises/Vocabulary/nervous.jpg

plz explain chewing a postcard

xp lol

from the list of items she auctioned on twitter

devi, glass dildo, with subtley-sordid backstory: $560

for the love of God, please, no one tell me the backstory

Also, I have no problem with her making and selling a bunch of t-shirts, they're an actual product, you don't go around asking t-shirt companies if their profit goes to any cause other than themselves... Though of course you might have a point if you did.

I don't get the chewing a postcard thing either, mind you.

maybe that was supposed to be "draw"? really weird typo to make tho

choose?

i chew chew chews you

*chews a postcard*

must be a goth thing

ahh yes 'choose'!

My cats have chewed up my mail before, maybe they are secret goths.

Maybe AP isn't an idiot, but whoever bought the ukulele for $600 is definitely an idiot.

The value of the chewed postcard is in the DNA sample.

jessie & alan: who killed amanda palmer vinyl: $100_
nikki: wine bottle, auctioned BY REQUEST!!! $320
[...]
daryl, ANOTHER wine bottle, by request, that we had LYING AROUND: $320

does anyone else find it kind of hilarious that she auctioned off two empty wine bottles for more than she auctioned off her own LP

dental imprints verifiable by sotheby's maybe? from a collector's POV, i suspect david bowie's original teeth are worth more than a sealed copy of changes.

re: rmde at Albini. Dude sounds like a smug soapboxer but considering how many Palmer defenders are all "you don't know what you guys are talking about! making records is super expensive!" I think he's probably responding to that.

When parsing both Amanda's comments and Steve's comments-- as I hinted upthread-- I think it's important to remember that Steve's preference toward "self-sufficiency" and Amanda's preference toward "hamburglery" are extensions of their art practice, nothing more nor less. Steve probably is an Obama supporter and Amanda probably has never voted

It's a little more hilarious than the idea that this is seen as 'connecting with fans'.

I'm so mistrustful of this woman at this point that I wouldn't at all be surprised if she just made up names and shit she's sold to create an bear economy

If it's political, then it is more than just an art extension, but pretty sure hamburglery would lean towards romney.

She sounds like a libertarian to me.

There is a whole culture of people who do things independently and efficiently, and it isn’t an accident that they have been at the vanguard of culture for decades.

albini sounds like one of those prepper dudes here! i'd be very circumspect about pegging his vote to anybody tbh

No no, didn't you read her missives? That she begins each post with "hola comrades" suggests she's firmly in the "I have no idea what these words mean" end of politics

as emil.y was saying...

ha touché

I value self-sufficiency and its implied efficiency and economy very highly. This personality trait has enabled my bands to turn a profit on literally every tour we’ve ever undertaken, from the first road trip to Minneapolis in 1982 to the tour of Australia we’ll be starting a couple of weeks from now. It has also kept my business afloat while most other studios are failing, despite the relatively low rates we charge. It’s a sound and productive way to see the world, it has served me well and I don’t apologize for it. It’s also not unique to me. There is a whole culture of people who do things independently and efficiently, and it isn’t an accident that they have been at the vanguard of culture for decades.

maybe i'm misinterpreting hamburglery, because i'm thinking of that funny guy in a striped jumpsuit and mask that runs around trying to enrich himself off other people's hamburgers, much like romney.

Hmm, maybe I mistyped.

"An extension of their art practice" does not equal "reflective of their actual political beliefs".

Most relevant comment imo:

This is everthing that scares me about where the future of music is heading. The actual music has no value except as a means of selling T-shirts. Instead of monetizing the music as product, it is becoming more accepted that merchandise is supposed to provide the income stream. Since so many music fans already have no problem with violating copyright law, I see no problem extending that same mentality to bootlegged, unlicensed merchandise. What happens then? What happens when the legit merchandise income dries up? I guess the income will have to come from performances. Not a very reliable source of money except for established acts. The fact is, there is NO WORKING MODEL for the future that you can plan on, if you do any long term business planning.. NONE. Right now it’s just a free-for-all. What band t-shirt do you want? Dresdon Dolls, NIN, Radiohead, Knucklehead Bitches? One can be had for $3.50, instead of $25. Oh well. Right now the experts are nobody and everybody.

That's what I meant, at least. Yeah Albini reads like he's Ron Paul but he's not, I just think he just doesn't get the same pleasure in listening to Guns n Roses that other people do

would the hamburglar eat your burger and then sell you the empty box via online auction y/n?

(I kind of assumed that both Palmer and Albini are Democrats fwiw.)

xpost to self

Valuing self-sufficiency != libertarianism

Clearly the future is in getting your fans to buy your empty wine bottles for hundreds of dollars.

Steve's preference toward "self-sufficiency" and Amanda's preference toward "hamburglery"

struggled manfully not to irl lol at work, barely succeeded

Big babies. She didn’t say you would make $19,000, but that you can. Stop your whining and get a fanbase and then you could use her methods to make some cash too. I’m imagining that other artists (web comics, etc.) could use this template too. Twitter has no overhead and won’t cut into your profits like an established record label (full of deadwood sucking at the teat of the artists actually creating things).
Great way to think outside the establishment Amanda!

"stop your whining and get a fanbase" aha that's where we've all been going wrong

I think Ron Paul would be down with GNR. There isn't the weird discordance as with Paul Ryan's championing of RATM.

I want to find this Daryl and verify that he did in fact purchase an empty bottle of wine for $340
If so, I'm gonna see what he'll give me for these water-damaged records, this empty jar of valtrex

"An extension of their art practice" does not equal "reflective of their actual political beliefs".

That's true, but when it extends into passing judgement on other people's financial habits it goes a little beyond "art practice." It just seemed like an off topic line to take because I don't think Albini or anybody really believes that she doesn't have the money right? It distracts from the central message which should have been "pay your musicians" not some kind of "book your own fuckin life" fiscally conservative ideology.